1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image editing method, as well as to an image editing system, which processes through a network various digital images such as digitized photographs, for the purpose of transmission, display, edition, printing and so forth, in compliance with orders given by customers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, users of cameras bring the films after exposure to so-called laboratory-shops, where photographic processings are executed, such as development and printing, to produce photographs in accordance with the camera user""s requests. Although the user""s requests are accepted to some extent in regard to print size, trimming and so forth, there are as a practical matter limitations on the range of selections open to the user.
On the other hand, from the standpoint of the camera user, it is quite troublesome and inconvenient to visit laboratory-shops each time he or she wishes to have desired photographic outputs. In order to obviate this problem, it is conceivable that silver salt photographs are digitized into digital images and sent through a network for processing.
This gives rise to a venture to setup a new business in which silver salt photographs, which are nowadays very popular, are digitized for processing and delivery through a network. Such a venture, however, does not seem likely to be successful from a commercial point of view. This is because the processing and delivery through the network will raise the fees for the services to a level that cannot easily be accepted by a household economy, due to the large amount amount of the digital data to be transmitted through the network.
For the purpose of sending full-color images, it is possible to use the JPEG compression technique, which is a popular non-reciprocal compression method. Even when such a compression technique is used, however, the problem remains that, while the communication time is in inverse proportion to the communication capacity of the network, the fees are raised in proportion to the communication capacity, although the quality of the image is improved as the communication capacity increases. Thus, it is not easy to obtain a good balance of these three factors: (1) communication fees, (2) communication time, and (3) image quality.
The Internet (referred to also as xe2x80x9cWWWxe2x80x9d, hereinafter), which is now spreading widely and rapidly, employs a description language HTML as a format for expressing images. Such images are transmitted via the Internet by means of a communication protocol known as HTTP. This transmission method, however, does not allow easy editing of images and text, although it is suitably employed in transmission/display of texts accompanied by still images. Therefore, it is not appropriate to use ordinary WWW communication protocol for the purpose of transmission, when it is desired to edit transmitted texts and images.
It might be possible to employ a specific transmission method capable of eliminating the above-described problems or shortcomings. Such a specific transmission method, however, will deprive users of the advantages of the WWW, which can readily be accessed and used by ordinary persons all over the world.
It is a primary object of the present invention to obviate the above-described problems and shortcomings.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to make available a service in which silver-salt photographic pictures or images are transmitted, displayed, edited and printed at practically acceptable fees, by using communication lines such as telephone lines or ISDN lines which can easily be afforded by individual households.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method which enables interactive image edition through the WWW, without requiring any significant modification of the WWW.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an image editing method which employs templates suitable for execution of the editorial work, thus enabling practical storage service with reduced occupation of storage area in the storage medium.
To these ends, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image processing method for processing an image in a system having a remote image processing station and a server image processing station, comprising: a first storage step in which high-resolution information is stored in the remote image processing station; a first transferring step in which image information of resolution lower than that of the high-resolution image information is transferred from the remote image processing station to the server image processing station; a second storage step in which the low-resolution image information transferred in the first transferring step is stored in the server image processing station; a second transferring step in which the low-resolution image information stored in the second storage step is transferred from the server image processing station to a user""s terminal; a first editing step in which the low-resolution image information transferred in the second transferring step is edited at the user""s terminal; a third transferring step in which editorial information indicative of the contents of the edition performed in the first editing step is transferred from the user""s terminal to the remote image processing station; and a second editing step in which the high-resolution image information stored in the first storage step is edited in the remote image processing station in accordance with the editorial information transferred in the third transferring step.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image processing system comprising a remote image processing station and a server image processing station, wherein the remote image processing station comprises: first storage means for storing high-resolution information; first transferring means for transferring low-resolution image information of resolution lower than that of the high-resolution image information to the server image processing station; first receiving means for receiving, from the server image processing station, editorial information indicative of the contents of edition which has been effected on the low-resolution image information; and editing means for editing the high-resolution image information stored in the first storage means in accordance with the editorial information received by the first receiving means; and wherein the server image processing station comprises: second storage means for storing the low-resolution image information transferred by the first transferring means; second transferring means for transferring the low-resolution image information stored in the second storage means to a user""s terminal; second receiving means for receiving the editorial information indicative of the contents of the edition performed on the low-resolution image at the user""s terminal; and third transferring means for transferring the editorial information received by the second receiving means to the remote image processing station.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become clear from the following description when the same is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.